Tina's tragedy reflects reality: iLIVE

The report headlined "Brutalised" in yesterday's paper highlighted the need for women to report abuse.

Abusive men will threaten their partners with more violence if they dare call the authorities, but women must not relent.

The mind games these men play are sometimes so sophisticated that rational women can be driven to the verge of insanity .

Even so, women must not lay charges and then withdraw them - most of these situations do not get better. Lay the charge and stick to it.

Flee the abuser if you can, even if it means you spend some time in a shelter, or some place you cannot be found. The less that abused women do, the more the abuse continues. And even if you do manage to leave an abusive lover, there is always the risk they pose to other women.

These men are geared to use more violence when women do not do anything about it. - Enough is Enough, by e-mail

I JUST read the horrific report on Tina Mbili and how she was beaten. Our law enforcement authorities are, tragically, at a loss when it comes to halting something like this. There are so many psychopaths lurking around, unnoticed.

Women will continue to suffer, or die, at the hands of these monsters.

The problem of domestic abuse is still not being taken seriously enough.

Too often, certain sectors of society regard an abused woman as being "the crazy and unstable one", as if they are somehow responsible for the abuse they endure.

In some cases , abusers succeed in severing all the victim's ties to her friends and family through his manipulation and lies.

Too often, before a woman has a chance to regain her sanity and her life, she is savagely beaten to death.

We, as women, are still not being taken seriously.

If we had proper protection, Tina Mbili would be unharmed. A protection order and two pending cases did not stop her former boyfriend from allegedly beating her. This is terrifying.